Every day we read or hear about some biological threat, whether it be from a potentially deadly strain of the flu virus, a prevalent pathogenic bacterium in foods like Campylobacter in uncooked chicken meat; or a seemingly safe FDA-approved drug that has been found to be unsafe like aspirin that induces bleeding gastric ulcers and brain hemorrhages; or pollutants in the air or water like the endemic fungus that causes Valley Fever or chlorine that decontaminates our tap water but increases risk for colon cancer; or toxic heavy metals like mercury or lead in our dental fillings and roadways; or parasitic germs like H. pylori, Candida albicans or Streptococcus that are commonly harbored in our own digestive tract.

Then there is aging itself with all of the chronic diseases it brings with it – circulatory problems, insidious decline in vision from cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration, as well as fatty liver, excessive sugar levels and numerous malignancies.

Not to mention excitotoxins like MSG, toxic sugars like fructose, hydrogenated (trans) fats in baked goods, carcinogens like nitrosamines, acrylamide or dioxin, or a newly described threat — advanced glycation end products produced from heat-processed sugary foods we eat.

There are endless studies of each and every one of these and many other health threats, but no study that assesses these risks as a whole. Modern medicine addresses each and every one of these health threats individually and capitalizes on all of them by developing costly medicines and narrowly designed treatments that can be found in the voluminous International Classification of Diseases (ICD-volume 9) published by the World Health Organization and in the Merck Manual.

Waiting for each and every one of these threats to occur and then attempting to treat them as they are detected appears to be folly. But that is precisely how modern medicine addresses prevalent health threats and runs up the bill.

Mounting a defense against all biological threats

Mounting a defense against all of them would pose a considerable challenge as well. How many medicines would one have to take to fend off all of them? And in this era of germ resistance, we can’t habitually take antibiotics to ward off infectious diseases before they occur without inducing treatment-resistant forms of these germs over time.

Is there anything available that counters all these threats?

If an antidote DOES exist for all these health threats, it must be safe, widely available, not require a doctor’s prescription, economical and user friendly. It has to be something that people don’t have revulsion over, like the after-taste of cod liver oil.

Vitamins and minerals are essential for health maintenance but there is no single nutrient that addresses all of these health threats.

One antidote: an old remedy

Upon careful examination, nature does provide one antidote for what ails modern society – garlic.

Overreliance upon vaccines that deliver small amounts of viruses and bacteria in order to provoke antibodies has led to the problem vaccine- derived illness and the realization there will never be complete eradication of communicable diseases because of the fact vaccines have become the primary source of circulating infectious disease today.

GARLIC SAFETY

A survey revealed that 8% of 657 patients taking dietary supplements consumed garlic pills (53 patients) and there were no reported side effects. The authors of this study considered potential drug interactions as “worrisome” but could not identify any instances where garlic produced problems when blood thinners were being used.

THE REACH AND IMPACT OF GARLIC

In 1988 a report published in the Journal of the National Medical Association stated that garlic has “played in the therapy of many diseases since time immemorial…. Garlic has been a mainstay in the medicinal arsenal of many past civilizations, including the Egyptian, Hebrew, Chinese, Greek, Indian, Japanese, and Roman…. No other substance, either natural or synthetic, can match garlic’s proven therapeutic versatility and effectiveness …. Allicin and other sulfur compounds are thought to be the major antimicrobial factors in garlic… Profound therapeutic and economic implications will evolve as data from studies continue to confirm the medicinal spectra of garlic.”

It is agonizing to recognize how long garlic and its primary active molecule allicin have been disregarded in preference for synthetic drugs that have boxed mankind into a corner. The plagues of the Dark Ages may return due to germ resistance emanating from overuse of antibiotics.

A 2007 trial published in the Archives of Internal Medicine conducted by investigators at Stanford Medical School using raw garlic, garlic powder, aged garlic extract failed to demonstrate a statistical or clinically significant effect upon cholesterol. This report generated negative news reports and a decline in the public’s interest in garlic at that time.

(Since that time cholesterol has been authoritatively dismissed as a predictor of impending heart attacks and arterial calcifications have been identified as the primary cause of mortal heart attacks. A large human trial published in the European Heart Journal recently reveals high blood pressure, cholesterol or diabetes have no bearing on whether a person will experience a future heart attack while a calcium arterial score of zero indicates an individual has a one-half-of-one percent risk of experiencing a mortal heart attack over a 5-year period. This is another giant misdirection by modern medicine. Garlic therapy has been shown to reduce calcification of coronary arteries.)

Meanwhile, the challenge of overcoming garlic’s pungency and odor while delivering allicin, its key molecule, has finally been overcome. The availability of an alkaline buffered garlic capsule that assuredly delivers about 2500-2800 micrograms (2-3 milligrams) of allicin, about the same amount as a fresh-crushed clove of garlic, and that also eliminates garlic breath and odor, is a welcome development.

Will adoption of this garlic pill into people’s daily health regimens occur? If so, a favorable change in health status and longevity in the population at large may be forthcoming.

Given the many published reports extolling garlic, its lack of adoption by modern medicine is a major oversight. Predictably, there will be no doctor-led garlic revolution. Despite the overwhelming evidence and historical use of garlic, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs have been the central focus of the practice of medicine for the past 30 years.

An assessment of aggregate health threats provides a more comprehensive view of health threats that humans face on a daily basis. The practice of addressing each and every biological threat as they occur has led to point where the cost of medical care is beyond affordability.